Monday, March 8, 2010

Hi everyone! My name is May and I started selling on Etsy last August. I’ve been sewing since I was 14, taking Saturday courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. I decided to take it to the next level last summer. I found out about Etsy on BurdaStyle and decided to give it a chance. After a few months, I felt very at home. Many sellers have helped me grow and learn about advertising, taking photos, taxes, marketing, craft fairs, and among numerous other things. For the seven months I’ve been here, I must say that I have chosen the correct online venue to sell at. I don’t think I would have learned as much on my own or at any other site. Despite the major competition here for sales, there is a great amount of communication, respect and honesty on Etsy between sellers and buyers and other sellers as well. I hope the others around me on the site feel the same love I do! Being connected is an important part of running a business and Etsy has helped me build a lifelong network of friends and enemies (we are competing for sales you know!)

Check out May's: shop, twitter, fb, and blog. Please show her some love since she is offering my blog readers an exclusive discount.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Hey everyone! Well I wanted to put the word out that I am looking for a few guest posters for my blog. It can be anything Etsy related. Love/hate, it dosen't matter to me. And if any of you are interested I am looking for 3 co-authors to do the blog with me. I think I'd like some fresh perspectives. So if interested in either email me renee.quick11@gmail.com or etsy convo me.

Monday, March 1, 2010

This whole thing started for me about two years ago when I was going to yoga class. I work in a research facility at a university and even though I love my job, it doesn’t always quench my creative thirst. Two times a week during lunch, I go to a yoga class that is in my building. The woman who teaches the class saw my groovy yoga bag and said to me, “What a great bag!”, to which I eagerly replied, “I made it.” She responded appropriately with a (gasp!) and said, “If you make some of those for me, I will sell them in my studio!” That’s how VirtuoSew was started. I made her about 6 bags and some hairbands.

People started seeing items and I started selling by word of mouth. I wound up at a craft fair and shared a table with a friend who I consider a very talented artist. She told me about Etsy and encouraged me to check it out. Just over a year ago, I opened my Etsy shop. I am constantly thinking about ways to combine fabrics, ways to improve my designs, and thinking of new designs! I still have a lot to learn and long ways to go, but Etsy makes the whole selling thing pretty easy. You get out what you put in, and you can’t always say that about your 9-5. If I’m not selling as much as I’d like, there is always something I can do to improve. I can do things in my own time, in my own way.

Etsy has given me the opportunity to be my own boss and reap the benefits of all my hard work.